favourite 

numbers

&

beauty

monad

dyad

triad

+

tetrad

PENTAD

decade

...

φ

1.61803398874989484820458683436563811772030917980576286213544862270526046281890244970720720418939113748475408807538689175212663386222353693179318006076672635443338908659593958290563832266131992829026788067520876689250171169620703222104321626954862629631361443814975870122034080588795445474924618569536486444924104432077134494704956584678850987433944221254487706647809158846074998871240076521705751797883416625624940758906970400028121042762177111777805315317141011704666599146697987317613560067087480710131795236894275219484353056783002287856997829778347845878228911097625003026961561700250464338243776486102838312683303724292675263116533924731671112115881863851331620384005222165791286675294654906811317159934323597349498509040947621322298101726107059611645629909816290555208524790352406020172799747175342777592778625619432082750513121815628551222480939471234145...blablah

A theory of pure design

lines, a brief history

pedagogical sketchbook

Point and line to plane

continuous 

&

discrete

the world can be thought of as a continuous system

whereas digital computers feed on discrete data

most dimensions of the world can be 

turned into discretes variables

splitting the world

 into discrete data

1 Dimension

primitive types : the flesh of computation

bit / boolean 0 or 1 
byte / octet : 8 bit
Float : 16 bit ( picture source )

Int  /  Uint  /  Double : 32 bit
Character : 7 bit (US ASCII ) - 32 bit (UTF-32)

2 Dimensions

a series of unidimesnsional data

( mono-channel ) sound : [ value ( frequency modulation ), time ]

N-dimensions

combinatorics of primitive data types

color  { R, G, B }

3D vector { X, Y, Z }

binary + pixel : [ X, Y, value ]

stereo + sound :  [ L, R, T, sampling rate ]

pixel + alpha + color : [ X, Y, A, R, G, B ] 

3D scene = coordinates, colors, projection, time

video = image, position, color, sound, time

N-DIMENSIONS

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  "coordinates": null,
  "favorited": false,
  "created_at": "Wed Sep 05 00:37:15 +0000 2012",
  "truncated": false,
  "id_str": "243145735212777472",
  "entities": {
    "urls": [
    ],
    "hashtags": [
      {
        "text": "peterfalk",
        "indices": [
          35,
          45
        ]
      }
    ],
    "user_mentions": [

    ]
  },
  "in_reply_to_user_id_str": null,
  "text": "Maybe he'll finally find his keys. #peterfalk",
  "contributors": null,
  "retweet_count": 0,
  "id": 243145735212777472,
  "in_reply_to_status_id_str": null,
  "geo": null,
  "retweeted": false,
  "in_reply_to_user_id": null,
  "place": null,
  "user": {
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    "created_at": "Wed May 28 00:20:15 +0000 2008",
    "location": "",
    "is_translator": true,
    "follow_request_sent": false,
    "id_str": "14927800",
    "profile_link_color": "FF3300",
    "entities": {
      "url": {
        "urls": [
          {
            "expanded_url": "http://www.jason-costa.blogspot.com/",
            "url": "http://t.co/YCA3ZKY",
            "indices": [
              0,
              19
            ],
            "display_url": "jason-costa.blogspot.com"
          }
        ]
      },
      "description": {
        "urls": [

        ]
      }
    },
    "default_profile": false,
    "contributors_enabled": false,
    "url": "http://t.co/YCA3ZKY",
    "favourites_count": 883,
    "utc_offset": -28800,
    "id": 14927800,
    "profile_image_url_https": "https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/1751674923/new_york_beard_normal.jpg",
    "profile_use_background_image": true,
    "listed_count": 150,
    "profile_text_color": "333333",
    "protected": false,
    "lang": "en",
    "followers_count": 8760,
    "time_zone": "Pacific Time (US & Canada)",
    "profile_background_image_url_https": "https://si0.twimg.com/images/themes/theme6/bg.gif",
    "verified": false,
    "profile_background_color": "709397",
    "notifications": false,
    "description": "Platform at Twitter",
    "geo_enabled": true,
    "statuses_count": 5532,
    "default_profile_image": false,
    "friends_count": 166,
    "profile_background_image_url": "http://a0.twimg.com/images/themes/theme6/bg.gif",
    "show_all_inline_media": true,
    "screen_name": "jasoncosta",
    "following": false
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  "source": "<a href=\"http://jason-costa.blogspot.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">My Shiny App</a>",
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}

a tweet can potentially be represented in ~72 dimensions

sample JSON response for a Tweet update source

SPAmARIUM

reduced to a unidimensional variable, a data

can shift between various fields of representation

more and more data are made available 

http://onesecond.designly.com/ 

most data are often rich enough 

"draw me an ant!"

parametrisation 

& 

expressiveness

step 1

⇩

◾

because sometimes, that's all it takes...

a brainless ant colony

step 2

adding 3 pairs of «legs» implicitly draws a 

segmentation of the body into 3 parts

STEP 3

STEP 4

in fact, the ant's body is made of 3 segments: a head with 2 antennas,  a thorax from where legs start in a star shape and the abdomen which is slightly bigger than the thorax

STEP 5

legs are composed of 3 segments, the forelegs are usually shorter, the back legs are stronger, the gravity center lies around the petiole

STEP 6

BALANCE

in the eyes of a computer, your face is a random pile of phenotypic traits

phenotype

phainein, 'to show'  & typos, 'type'
  the composite of an organism's observable characteristics or traits , such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, phenology, BLAH BLAH BLAH 

excellent tutorials by Joumana Medlej on how to draw mankind in all it's variety http://majnouna.com/tutorials.html

traits

parametric

from which I collected a set of key values hereunder encoded in SVG. 

data="M 11 0 L 11 8 L 8 11 L 5 9 L 1 10 L 4 12 L 0 14 L 8 18 L 11 19 L 11 21 L 11 22 L 11 24 L 7 22 L 2 25 L 11 25 L 11 30"

expressive

from this points, I built a parametric face & a more expressive renderer
your face

graphics

rules

Learn to see

DETAILs

Joseph Mallord

William Turner

critical distance

NOISE

&

VARIATION

are easier to control than pure random

a noise is a unidimensional process & can 

apply to any dimension of an object

COLOR PALETTE

using a limited set of colors

UNLESS DONE ON PURPOSE

this is wrong!

when seeing a colorful setup, take a quick note with a camera then use one of the numerous online utilities

Color Explorer

acquire a visual culture 

&

become an artist in 3 easy steps

lifecycle of an art piece

• conception
  
  
• production
  
  
• exhibition
  
  
• archive

if one of these steps is missing
you messed up somewhere
note: this requires a LOT of WORK

GRAPHICS 

TOOLs 

polar

x = cos( angle ) * radius;
y = sin( angle ) * radius;

cylindrical

x = cos( angle ) * radius;
y = height value;
z = sin( angle ) * radius;

spherical

var theta = 0 > ? > PI * 2;
var phi = -PI > ? > PI;
x = sin( theta ) * cos( phi ) * radius;
y = sin( theta ) * sin( phi ) * radius;
z = cos( theta ) * radius;

POINT & vector

POLYLINE

SURFACE

CURVE

towards a unified model

methods 

& 

functions

distribution

distance

function distance( p0, p1 )
{
    var dx = p0.x - p1.x;
    var dy = p0.y - p1.y;
    return sqrt( dx * dx + dy * dy );
}

angle

function angle( p0, p1 )
{	
    return atan2( p1.y - p0.y, p1.x - p0.x );
}

pseudo-random 

&

random

jitter

normalization

function nrm( value, A, B )
{
    return ( value - A ) / ( B - A );
}

LINEAR INTERPOLATION

function lrp( value, A, B )
{
    return A + value * ( B - A );
} 

MAP

function map( value, A0, B0, A1, B1 )
{
    var norm = nrm( value, A0, B0 );
    return lrp( norm, A1, B1 );
}

cartesian

to

polar

regular patterns

translation

function translate( p, x, y )
{
    p.x += x;
    p.y += y;
    return p;
}

rotation (around a lattice)

function rotate( p, lattice, angle )
{
    var a = angle( lattice, p ) + angle;
    var d = distance( lattice, p );
    var nx = lattice.x + cos( a ) * d;
    var ny = lattice.y + sin( a ) * d;
    return new point( nx, ny );
}

projection 

function project( p, a, b, asSegment )
{    var A = p.x - a.x;
    var B = p.y - a.y;
    var C = b.x - a.x;
    var D = b.y - a.y;

    var dot = A * C + B * D;
    var len = C * C + D * D;
    var t = dot / len;
    
    if( asSegment )
    {
        if( t < 0 ) return a;
        if( t > 1 ) return b;
    }    return new point( a.x + t * C, a.y + t * D );}

reflection

function reflect( p, a, b )
{
    var pp = project( p, a, b, false );
    var nx = p.x + ( pp.x - p.x ) * 2;
    var ny = p.y + ( pp.y - p.y ) * 2;
    return new point( nx, ny );
}

glide

 function glide( p, a, b, distance )
{
    var t = reflect( p, a, b );
    var angle = angle( a, b );
    var nx = cos( angle ) * distance;
    var ny = sin( angle ) * distance;
    return translate( t, nx, ny );
}

introduction to generative concepts

http://en.nicoptere.net/?tag=introduction

open processing samples

distributing unidimensional random values  http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/84288

building a N-dimensional bezier curve  http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/106374

patterns

&

structures

pattern

regularly repeating array of identical units 

[...] arrays of units that are similar but not necessarily identical, and which repeat but not necessarily regularly or with a well-defined symmetry. [...] 

- Philip Ball  in Nature's patterns, a tapestry in three parts

LITTLE THINGS 

PLEASE LITTLE MINDS

one of my greatest joys in life
 is to observe patterns

I try to understand how they  work
to find their structure or formal grammar

understanding a structure allows to build a system

further reading

SIMPLicitiES

=

complexity

iteration

var bits = "I AM A BANANA!".split('');
var max = bits.length;
var out = "";
for( var i = 0; i < max; i++ )
{
    out += bits[ i ];
}
console.log( out );//-> I AM A BANANA!

recursion

function goBanana( count ) 
{
    if( count == 0 )
    {
        return "I AM A BANANA!";
    }
    else
    {
        return goBanana( --count );
    }
}
console.log( goBanana( 100 ) );//-> I AM A BANANA!

motion

var PI2 = Math.PI * 2;
var D2R = Math.PI / 180;
var PHI = 3 * D2R;
var pos = new Vector3();
var angle = new Vector3( rnd() * PI2, rnd() * PI2, rnd() * PI2 );
var speed = new Vector3( rnd() * PHI, rnd() * PHI, rnd() * PHI );

function update()
{
    angle.add( speed );
    pos.x = 1;
    pos.y = 0;
    pos.z = 0;
    quaternion.setFromEuler( angle );
    pos.applyQuaternion( quaternion );
    pos.normalize();
    pos.multiplyScalar( radius );
}

FRACTAL

ATTRACTORs

//ratios: -2 > R > 2
var r = [0.487108, -0.806386, 1.343395, 0.706031, 1.323653 ];
var v = new Vector3();
var scale = 50;
for( var i = 0; i < 20000; i++ )
{
	var k = 0;
	var x = v.x;
	var y = v.y;
	var z = v.z;
	v.x = sin( r[ k++ ] * y ) - z * cos( r[ k++ ] * x );
	v.y = z * sin( r[ k++ ] * x ) - cos( r[ k++ ] * y );
	v.z = r[ k++ ] * sin( x );
	//ouput position
	var o = new Vector3( v.x * scale, v.y * scale, v.z * scale );
}

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/fractals/booktext/sabook.pdf
Clifford attractor

rewriting

var axiom = "a";
var rules = { "a" : "ab", "b" : "a" };
function rewrite()
{
	var new_axiom = "";
	var tmp = axiom.split( '' );
	for( var i = 0; i < tmp.length; i++ )
	{
		new_axiom += rules[ tmp[ i ] ]; 	}
	axiom = new_axiom;
	return axiom;
}
console.log( rewrite() );   // -> ab
console.log( rewrite() );   // -> aba
console.log( rewrite() );   // -> abaab
console.log( rewrite() );   // -> abaababa

CONTEXT-FREE GRAMMAR

describes the structure of all valid sentences. a formal grammar is based on production rules and stops when the axiom contains only terminal symbols

#define _col0 #F00
#define _col1 #FF0
#define _inc 0.1
40 * {   y 0.1 ry 9 rz -2 s 1.01 1.01 1.01 color _col0  }column
rule column w 0.5
{
    { y 0.5 ry 18   blend _col1 _inc     }box
}
rule column w 0.2
{
    { x -0.25 z -0.25 y 0.5 s 0.8  blend _col1 _inc     } box
}
rule column w 0.2
{
    20 * { rx 1 ry 1.5 rz 3 s 0.75 0.95 1.10  blend _col1 _inc }box
}

further reading

the previous slides were done using structure synth and rendered using sunflow.  

a good read about structure synth

fields

growth

side notes

&

mantras

resarch & development

the implementation

is less important than

the algorithm

cheap tricks work

use with extreme caution

try to take risks

playing is not working

be open-minded, passionate, curious
but most of all
be hard at work

FAILure IS NOT GOOd

persisting through failure is
it takes time to learn to fail

Stop Starting,

Start Finishing

try to work with people that are better than you

creatives with
some logic

&

coders with
some taste 

never go unemployed

credits